THE ROUND-UP
The Latest from the F4W Staff
NEWS
Lucha Underground results: Sexy Star vs. Johnny Mundo
WWE NXT results: TakeOver fallout with matches taped in Toronto
Samoa Joe to face Shinsuke Nakamura as NXT heads to Japan
OPINION
Drew Galloway on ICW’s success and his future in TNA
WWE Survivor Series preview & predictions: The battle of the brands
If Goldberg needed to win at Survivor Series, Brock Lesnar didn’t need to lose
REPORTS
Lucha Underground results: Sexy Star vs. Johnny Mundo
WWE NXT results: TakeOver fallout with matches taped in Toronto
NJPW World Tag League 2016 results: Tanahashi & Robinson vs. Tencozy
AUDIO
WOR: WWE Network vs. PPV business, Smackdown, Lucha Underground, tons more! 11/24
F4D: Tom’s B-sample, Smackdown, Impact, OVERWEIGHT CLASSIC SONG CONTEST AND FINALE 11/23
WOL: Smackdown, James Ellsworth title shot, Undertaker, Royal Rumble, more! 11/23
TNA IMPACT AT 8 P.M. TONIGHT ON POP TV
NEW JAPAN TAG LEAGUE FROM HIROSHIMA TOMORROW ON NEW JAPAN WORLD (this should be up sometime tomorrow, not airing live)
Yoshitatsu & Billy Gunn vs. Seiya Sanada & Evil
Kenny Omega & Chase Owens vs. Bad Luck Fale & Bone Soldier
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Yuji Nagata
Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto
FIGURE FOUR WEEKLY: 11/17/2016: More on Buddy Rose
During his time splitting time between the Portland and San Francisco territories, Buddy Rose continued to make trouble with the California State Athletic Commission throughout 1978 and 1979. For some reason, all of the incidents appear to have taken place in San Jose, like the one discussed last week where he was being penalized for a ref bump… click here to continue.
WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: Nov 28, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWE Survivor Series, Goldberg agrees to more matches
The improbable story of Bill Goldberg, weeks before his 50th birthday, coming back for what was supposed to be a one-time appearance to help promote the WWE’s video game, and emerging as the biggest star in pro wrestling just tells you that the axiom that it’s all about timing is true.
Goldberg defeated Brock Lesnar in 1:26 after agreeing to come back for at least a few more dates. Unlike with Sting, who lost to HHH in his first match back because of the idea that at his age, he was only going to do one match with the company, but that was kept hidden, in Goldberg’s case, he came out on interview No. 1 and said about Lesnar, that not only was he next, but he was last… click here to continue.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to Dave Meltzer, or by using PayPal directing funds to [email protected].
Rates in the United States are $13 for 4 issues, $32 for 12, $61 for 24, $101 for 40 and $131 for 52. In Canada and Mexico, rates are $14.50 for 4, $35 for 12, $67 for 24, $111 for 40 and $144 or 52. In Europe, you can get the fastest delivery and best rates by sending to [email protected]. For the rest of the world, rates are $16.50 for 4, $44 for 12, $85 for 24, $141 for 40 issues and $183 for 52. If you order by mail with a check, cash or money order (P.O. Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228), you can get $1 off in every price range.)
If you are a new subscriber ordering 24 or more issues, you can choose one free classic issue, or two free classic issues with a 40-issue subscription.
WON BACK ISSUE: November 1, 1999: Mick Foley’s autobiography becomes best seller, WCW Halloween Havoc review, more – The autobiography of Mankind wasn’t supposed to be anything special. The idea was that Regan Books would take advantage of the WWF’s popularity to mass market quickie autobiographies on the company three most popular wrestlers. Mankind barely made the cut, but they probably figured because his more than dozens… click here to continue.
THURSDAY NEWS UPDATE
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We’re truly thankful for the support you guys give us. Thanksgiving used to be the biggest day of the year for pro wrestling in the United States and many cities, such as Greensboro, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Dallas, and Sacramento had a tradition of major shows. Dave Meltzer previously did an excellent piece on the history of wrestling on Thanksgiving that’s been reposted on the front page for subscribers.
Pro Wrestling NOAH officially announced today the loser leaves town match between Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Minoru Suzuki for the GHC title for December 2nd at Korakuen Hall. We wrote about it in the new issue but at the time it was not official.
Tuesday night’s episode of SmackDown was watched by 2,505,000 viewers, which was down from the 2,725,000 who watched last week’s episode 900 featuring the returns of The Undertaker and Edge.
Chris Jericho addressed why he wore a Sin Cara mask on this week’s Raw by calling it an “FU” to internet fans who think they know everything and claimed that him and Sin Cara are good friends and Sin Cara lent him the mask.
Kit Parker Films has released a DVD called “Houston’s Wrestling Spectacular, in which all the matches for the DVD were picked by the late Scott Williams, who grew up in Houston:
Nick Bockwinkel vs. Dick Slater (1982)
Jimmy Snuka vs. Ken Patera (1979)
Jack Brisco vs. The Spoiler (1979)
Dusty Rhodes vs. Ken Patera (1979)
Chavo Guerrero vs. Black Gordman (1981)
Dusty Rhodes vs. Ivan Koloff casket match (1980)
Dick Slater vs. Al Madril (19788)
Dusty Rhodes vs. Bruiser Brody (1977)
Bruiser Brody vs. Ivan Koloff (1980)
Tony Atlas & Tiger Conway Jr. vs. Tank Patton & Buck Robley (1981)
Johnny Valentine vs. Bull Curry (1966)
Bruiser Brody vs. The Spoiler (1979)
The Valentine vs. Curry match was absolutely fascinating for its time. You really see how ahead of his time Valentine was as a worker in that one.
WWE
T.J. Wilson on Twitter noted that he has been taken off Total Divas and won’t be appearing in the new season. As far as why, he said, “Oh, believe me, I don’t think they want my situation explained. I’ll leave it at that for now.”
For those keeping track, New Day breaks the Demolition record for the longest tag team title run in WWE/WWF/WWWF history on December 14th.
As was expected after Shinsuke Nakamura dropped the NXT Championship to Samoa Joe at NXT TakeOver: Toronto last Saturday, Joe will defend the title against Nakamura as NXT heads to Osaka, Japan on December 3rd.
Big Show did an interview and said he was down to 396 pounds, his lightest weight since 1995.
Randy Orton posted a photo of his new daughter on Twitter, saying he’s thankful for her.
Some interesting stuff on Twitter from Scott Dawson of The Revival during last week’s episode of SmackDown: “We’re the hottest act in tag team wrestling. You think we’re going to debut in a stupid multi-team gimmick match?” Bubba Ray Dudley replied: “Great job. You managed to insult the entire creative tam and your fellow workers in 1 tweet. Complete disrespect.” And Brian James said: “Keep talking like that and you won’t debut at all.”
PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING
Dave Meltzer is on Konnan’s show today talking Bill Goldberg and modern wrestling.
A good companion piece to the new Observer is this interview with Ed Francis which actually talks about a lot of stuff not in the new issue regarding growing up poor in the depression and getting into weightlifting and wrestling, and you can see how he was regarded on the islands.
In an update on Steve Corino’s situation with Ring of Honor, Dave Meltzer noted in this week’s edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Corino isn’t officially allowed to negotiate with other companies or accept an offer until his ROH contract expires on December 31st. Corino recently spent time at the WWE Performance Center as a guest trainer.
Jushin Liger spoke about Hiromu Takahashi’s (the former Kamaitachi) return to New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Cody Rhodes appeared on this week’s edition of the Art of Wrestling with Colt Cabana.
UFC
Frankie Edgar reportedly fought at UFC 205 with a torn MCL.
Aljamain Sterling is off the December 9th show in Albany, NY, where he was to face Raphael Assuncao. It appeared to be a ruling from the athletic commission in New York, as he released a statement yesterday thanking the commission and UFC for looking out for his health but said he was disappointed not to be fighting in New York.
Khabib Nurmagomedov posted a direct message he sent to Conor McGregor on Twitter.
Junior Dos Santos called out Stipe Miocic: “Hey @stipemiocicufc enjoy Thanksgiving in ur new home- hope it’s filled w great food & friends. Let’s fight after the holidays?Brooklyn? LMK”
MISCELLANEOUS
In the Observer this week where we talked about the ICW show and mentioned it may be the Dudleys last match together for a while because of Devon working as a producer for WWE, they are teaming up against War Machine on 12/16 for VIP Wrestling in Dallas at Gas Monkey Live. The show will also feature Michael Elgin, Matt Cross, Keith Lee, ACH, AR Fox and Marshall & Ross Von Erich.
AAW has already sold out in advance its show on Saturday in Chicago at the Logan Square Arena. The top matches are Sami Callihan vs. Chris Hero for the AAW title, Pentagon Jr. & Rey Hours & Drago vs. Eddie Kingston & Homicide & Low Ki, ACH vs. Prince Mustafa Ali, Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Trent Baretta, Mercedes Martinez vs. Kimber Lee, Jessicka Havok vs. Heidi Lovelace in an I Quit match plus Brian Cage, Kongo Kong, Chuck Taylor, Colt Cabana and more.
Joel Gertner will be doing a talk show on Sunday at the Raven Lounge in Philadelphia. This will be his first show talking about his experiences in ECW. Matt Tremont of CZW will be his guest. The show begins at 4 p.m. and tickets are $12 and $25 in advance, with the $25 ticket getting private drinks, a Q&A, an autographed 8×10 and a one minute promo.
As noted eariler this week, Jim Ross will be doing a one man show on 1/29 in San Antonio at the Improv Comedy Club at River Center during the afternoon, prior to the Royal Rumble.
RF Video has a sale tomorrow with 40% off select titles.
WrestleCircus: 12/17 – Austin, TX. 800 Congress Avenue – Doors at 5:30pm Bell at 6:00pm.
RESULTS: Team Vision Dojo in Orlando last night: Rey Xion b Tarben McCoy, Kikyo over Raegan Fire & Layne Rosario in a three-way, Axx Clover b Li Bryan, Amber Nova b Kafka, Aaron Epic & Kaci Lennox b CT Brown & Kikyo, JD Amazing b Robert Von Achen, Chasyn Rance & Bruce Santee b Chico Adams & CJ O’Doyle. Admission for canned food for the Second Harvest food bank.
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